Danz Aary Danz

My daughter danced competitively for 7 years.  I have tons of pictures, ribbons and medals from her competitions.  Together, she and I decided to keep all of her dance related pages together in the same album.  Well since all that stuff is organized and filed chronologically, it has taken me until just this week to get to the beginning of her dance career.

Here are a few of the pages I’ve completed in her new dance album:

Cover page — If you’ve ever met my daughter, you would know that this cover page suits her personality perfectly!

First Dance Camp — A very exciting time for a 10 year old!  They got to stay in the dorms at the University where this camp was hosted.  They also qualified for what was for her, her first national competition.

Dress Rehearsal — The first time wearing her new sparkly competition costume and performing their competition routine for an audience!

I’m lovin’ working on these pages!  I can bling them up like no others, because, well, it’s all about dance!  There’s no such thing as too much bling!

All Day Crop

What’s a good way to spend a cold Saturday?  Cropping with friends!  Today was the first all day crop with the Meetup scrapbooking group to which I belong.  We got started at 10:00 AM and scrapped until 6:00 PM.  Everyone brought something and we had a fabulous lunch with all kinds of goodies.  Amidst all the conversation and fun, I even managed to get 13 pages done!

This one is my absolute favorite of the batch I did today!  It’s the very beginning of the story of my son’s love affair with turtles.  The turtles I used in this layout were Wallies that not too awfully long ago were actually used on the walls in his room.

These are my daughter’s pages from a trip to see the Marblehead Lighthouse.  The border at the bottom was stamped with a CTMH wave stamp and the title was cut using Sizzlet dies and a Cuttlebug.  I have discovered I REALLY need a Cuttlebug!  It works SO much better than my Zip-E-Mate!

Here are two more pages of the world’s most scrapbooked dog!  This is Snickerdoodle, my daughter’s Shih Tzu.  This layout was from a scrapbooking kit I got on clearance at Archivers.

I’m Seeing Stars!

These adorable little stars are called “German Stars” or “Moravian Stars” and are typically used as Advent and Christmas decorations.  They are made from strips of paper (not cardstock). 

After watching a Carol Duvall special on HGTV some years back, I spent many hours trying to figure out just how they made these. (This was before the internet.)  Eventually I got it right!  I had pastel colored printer paper and that’s what I used.  The finished star is sometimes dipped in wax.  I used what I had on hand and that was some glittered nail polish.

After Christmas, the stars were just too pretty to put away so I transitioned them to a ficus tree I had in the livingroom at that time.  Because they were pastel, they later found their way to an Easter Tree.

Years ago, we were pretty much limited to whatever printer or copier paper was available.  But today, with ALL the beautiful papers that are out, I’m finding I’ve got an itch to make some more stars! 

Let’s see…  There’s Valentines Day, St. Patricks Day, Easter, 4th of July, Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years…  Oh the possibilities!

Library Class

I love to take classes!  It’s fun to learn something new and it’s always nice to get new ideas.  From time to time our library offers free or inexpensive classes.  It’s not like I really NEED to go to classes.  I’ve got a library of craft books and there is a wealth of information on the internet.  It’s just fun to get together with others and share.  And you never know what friends you will make along the way.

I signed up for a Valentine Card Class at our library.  I was a little disappointed that it turned out to be one of those “here’s your packet of stuff, have at it” sort of thing — more like a workshop than a class.  I still came away with half a dozen finished Valentines and a cute design for a pop-up card.

These were my favorite cards from the evening.  I’ve now caught the bug and can’t wait to make some more Valentines!

Two more Valentines.  I guess I was more in a “red” mood.  Or maybe it was because there wasn’t any pink patterned paper.  I wasn’t feeling the pink as much. 

This is the front of the pop-up card.  Cute idea.  I’m thinking it needs something more so I will probably do a bit of redesigning.

And here is the inside!  I’m planning to scan the pattern so let me know if you’d like me to email you a copy!

Ink Or Dye

Clever name, don’t you think?  That’s the name of the stamping group to which I belong.  We meet to play once a month.  We’ve always got some sort of project of activity planned.  We share ideas and products we’ve discovered and we’re never without some giggling.  It’s a fun group and I look forward to our meetings each month.

Swaps are an integral part of our activities.  Each month we have a card swap and an ATC swap.  Everyone brings one card and one ATC and we assign them numbers.  Then we draw numbers to determine who gets what.  Usually the swaps have themes, but last night, being our first meeting of the year, it was “Anything Goes”.

My card contribution was one of my “Gorgeous Guinea” cards I posted on January 12, 2010.  My ATC was one with a Valentine flavor.

Now to share my new treasures…

I received this card from my friend Betsy.  She is a CTMH demonstrator and always comes up with beautiful elaborate designs.  (Contact me if you need CTMH products and I will get you in touch with her!)

The ATC I received was from my friend Margy.  As you can see, great minds think alike.  (Or is it warped minds warp alike?)  She too, went with a Valentine flavor.  The camera doesn’t do her ATC justice.  She used Crystal Effects (aka Liquid Lacquer or Liquid Glass) to make the hearts in the truck bed shiny and dimensional.

The themes for the remainder of the year have been determined.  Next month the card theme is “Round & Round” — Make a round card that fits into a square envelope.  The ATC theme is “What I See Out the Window”.  Hmmm…

Hooray for eBay!

My husband and I are eBay junkies.  We love a good bargain.  We don’t necessarily shop for the same things.  He’s about DVDs, photography and karate equipment and I am, of course, about craft supplies.  So as not to clutter each other’s watch lists, we have our own accounts.

The one thing we do agree upon is that for it to be worthwhile, we need to get a good deal.  We marvel at those people who bid the price of a used item up beyond what they could get it for new at retail or through mail order, especially when it’s not a particularly rare item.  When we’re searching for something, we always have our limits in mind and that includes the price of the item as well as the shipping cost.  We’ve learned, that for the most part, if you’re patient enough, that same item will come around again. 

And so it was with the latest acquisition to my stamping arsenol!

I happened upon this stamp several weeks ago on one of my random searches for “rubber stamp”.  It’s not like I really NEED another stamp.  If you could see what I call my “Great Wall of Stamps” you would probably determine there couldn’t possibly be something I don’t have.  But any stamping addict will tell you, there’s always at least one more!

I do gravitate toward certain categories.  I love flowers and leaves and who can resist House Mouse?  And then there are snowflakes and swirls.  I use stamps in my scrapbooking, so many times I am looking for those stamps that parallel my kids’ activities and interests — dance and karate, for example.  My daughter is in college now with aspirations to become a zoologist, so most recently, I find myself drawn to animal stamps.  I couldn’t help myself when I found All Night Media’s “Zoo Babies”.

As I said, I first discovered it several weeks ago.  I carefully watched the auction and was waiting to bid as it neared the end.  Much to my dismay, the bidding took the price far beyond my limit.  I was disappointed but figured I would be able to find that stamp somewhere else.  So I set to work searching.  I checked the seller’s other listings hoping perhaps there was a second stamp.  No such luck.  I was unsuccessful with the manufacturer’s website as well as several other stamp sites I wander through from time to time.  Evidently this was a retired stamp.  I made note of the manufacturer and decided to check from time to time on eBay to see if another would surface.

I’m happy to say that last week one did!  Again, I watched the auction carefully and placed my bid with anticipation.  I’m proud to say that I won the stamp at the opening price — much less than the amount to which I was willing to bid! 

Patience DOES pay off!

And oh the ideas for cards that are dancing in my head now!

Just a Little Imagination

There are so many wonderful papercrafting toys out there!  I’d love to have them all!  If the people in my house weren’t so fond of eating I might have a bigger budget for such items.  I’m not complaining.  I do have my fair share of toys and I have wonderful friends that share theirs.

Every now and then, even with unlimited access to our toys, we need something with which they can’t help us.  That’s when we rely on good old fashioned imagination!

The picture in this layout was my son and two of his friends.  They had a day off school and decided to “build” a club house in our front yard with whatever they managed to find in our garage.  Most noteable was the big golf umbrella and it was the inspiration for my page.

I set to creating my own template for the large umbrella using a piece of scrap paper and a pencil.  I sketched, erased and revised until I had the umbrella just that way I wanted it.  Then I commited it to permanent lines and cut the pieces out with scissors.  I traced those templates onto colored cardstock which I cut out and pieced together to create the background for the photo.

As always, I’ve masked out the names but you might notice the date.  It’s from 2008.  I’ve written in previous postings how I’m working on 2002.  Every so often I do skip around when I’ve come up with a great idea.  It can be a sample I’ve seen somewhere or if I’ve found the perfect paper or embellishment.   Or it might even be something I thought up all on my own!

Brought to You by Google

Yesterday I was supposed to be working on a database…  Well, I did, for about an hour and a half.  Then if was off to Ramona’s for an impromptu “play day”.  (I’ve got my priorities, you know!)  I was armed with paper and an idea to sketch and paper-piece together a wheelbarrow.  But thanks to Ramona and her Cricut, she provided me with exactly what I had in mind!

Once the layout was in place, I was still in need of a clever title.  We brainstormed…  “Free Wheelin'”…  “Free Loadin'”…  Possibilities, but not quite the punch this page deserved.  I put it aside and worked on some others.

When I arrived home, I showed the page to my husband and told him of my dilemna with the title.  Sometimes he is a complete master at coming up with captions and clever sayings, even to the point, that when we’ve been going through photos and and events and I’ve deemed something “non-scrapbook worthy”  (yes, it IS possible), he can come up with something so clever that it makes the most mundane pictures scream to be scrapbooked.  This time, however, he came up empty.

It was then I turned to the resource of all resources — Google.  I googled “wheelbarrow quotes”.  I found some tiny little poem by William Carlos Williams which didn’t fit.  Then as I scrolled down further, I found a hit that appeared to be an ad/request for a wheelbarrow.  It read “wheelbarrow, not for highway use”.  Amidst my giggles, I shared it with my husband who nodded in approval and reminded me how when our son was riding in the wheelbarrow, he was shouting, “Faster Daddy, Faster!”  It all fit, and it was just too funny not to use!

Meet Up!

Through a friend, last summer I discovered www.meetup.com.  Meetup.com is a website that is host to many special interest groups throughout the country.  I joined a local hiking group and have gone on a number of hikes in our area.  It’s been a great way to meet people, get some exercise, and to learn more about the area in which I live. 

One evening a few months ago, I decided to take a look at what other groups might be in my area.  I discovered a new scrapbooking group that was forming right up the road from where I live!  Last night was our second “meet up”.  It was great fun with lots of laughter and conversation and we even got some work done! 

Here are the layouts I completed.  Remember, I’m still working in 2002! 

My daughter’s 5th grade field trip to Shakertown.  I used the Shaker “Tree of Life” logo as my inspiration for the embellishments.  I also included a typed print-out of the essay she had to write for class upon her return to school. 

My daughters 5th grade promotions and award breakfast.  My main focus on these pages was to include the pictures of her classmates.  All these kids graduated high school this past June so it was fun to see what they looked like so long ago.  Journaling of names will have to wait until the next time my daughter comes home from college to visit.

Two pages of random pictures of my son being cute.  I have a terrible time limiting down pictures like this.  Each expression shows his personality and I love them all.  The layouts are very basic so that the focus is on him.

St. Louis or BUST!

I don’t know a scrapbooker who isn’t behind in their scrapbooking!  I’m no exception.  I’m proud to say that yesterday I completed my scrapbooks from our St. Louis trip — from 2002!  That brings me up to date through April of 2002.  I have scrapbooked more recent events but these later years aren’t complete.  So I still need to catch up a lot in between.

I have two kids so I scrapbook in “tandem”.  Each kid has his or her own events and then, even with the family events, there still is their individual “flavor” to incorporate.  So basically, I am always working on two scrapbooks at the same time.  Every once in a while, I will have identical layouts, but most times, they are different.  The St. Louis scrapbooks netted 31 pages for my daughter and 39 pages for my son.

Our St. Louis trip was much like many trips we take — researched for all the things we could do along the way as well as all those things our destination had to offer.  We did quite a number of things and the pages I share here are only some of our wanderings.  Even with all I scrapbooked, there were items that were left out.  Digital cameras are fabulous tools for scrapbookers and sometimes the hardest part is sifting through all those pictures to choose what really captures the essence of any event.

Cover Page – The actual name has been masked on the title.  My AAA membership comes in handy as this page features a map of St. Louis.

En Route – My daughter’s pages illustrate our stops along the way.  Again, thanx to AAA for the road map!

En Route – My son’s pages.  This is an example of the different “flavors” in their individual scrapbooks.  My son had a really fabulous time at the hotel pool and he was much more the focus there than his sister was.  (Sorry Girlie Girl!)

The Arch – My daughter’s pages.  I used a soft wispy blue back ground and then used silver foil wrapping paper to recreate an arch that spans both pages.

A View from the Top – My son’s pages, hence some duplication of photos.

The Butterfly House – My daughter’s pages.  She was completely mesmerized.  My son, not so much, so this time she was the focus of the camera.

St. Louis Sights – My daughter’s pages.  I got a bit brave with this one, and actually cut the photos across the two page layout.  I say “a bit” because I only sliced them just a little.  This layout was the result of not having enough pictures  for 4 pages yet wanting to keep to even numbers so as not to throw the rest of the book off.

St. Louis Brewery – My son’s pages.  I used the star from the Anheiser Busch logo as my inspiration for the stars that embellish these pages.

Cahokia Mounds – Here I took two photos and matted them together to create a panoramic view from the top of Monk’s Mound.

Indianapolis – My daughter’s pages.  On the way back, we stopped to visit family friends.  I incorporated the school pictures of her friends into these pages.

Children’s Museum – My son’s pages.  My son was quite a bit younger than the other 4 kids so while they were off doing their thing, we accompanied him — with camera, of course!

Children’s Museum – My son’s pages.  I needed some filler and what better than boxes since he was playing in a box!

Children’s Museum – My son’s pages.

Children’s Museum – My daughter’s pages.  Another example of the different “flavors” between their books when capturing the same event.

Goin’ for a Ride – All too often, we get caught up in capturing the beginnings of a trip.  Here we captured the final events including check out from the hotel.